Chapter 27

A Big Hook

Excited voices woke me early the next morning. My entire crew must have been up on deck shouting and hooting. How strange it was to suddenly hear goblins on my ketch. I bounded off my cot, jumped into both boots at once, and sped down the hall to the cargo hold. I burst through the hatch.

It was almost dawn. A soft early blue light made my eyes go big. At the stern, my crew of 30 goblins clustered together.

“Pull!” they chanted. “Heave! Heave-ho!”

If pulling was what needed to be done, and heave and heave-hoing came next, that’s what I did. I latched onto the closest goblin and pulled with all my might. As one we strained. As one we gritted our teeth and we grunted. As one, we fell back and spilled across the dock.

“Another thing!” remember-not hollered.

My snots stood at attention and saluted me. Remember-not would have, but she was plopped in a puddle. Junk lay at her feet. There were crudely planed boards and a sapling bound around a metal rod.

“Sloop pieces?” I said.

“I’m fishing for ships like you said!” she said.

A rope of ripped canvas lay beside her. Half was in a coil. The other half was heaped in a mess. The end was tied to a metal hook.

“It’s working!” she continued. “You said you wish it were as easy as fishing and I wanted to see if it could be and so I fished and we got a few things and then we got this.”

“These are for you, Admiral,” Little-belly said.

With some help, he dragged a pile of things over. There was a wet cloak, a barrel hoop, a tankard, a basket, and a leather collar.

“All right, snots,” Remember-not said. “Let’s bring these down to the forecastle to add to the Admiral’s hoard!”

The items were quickly gathered up. As if gearing for a race, those goblins leaned forward. Then they waited for commands.

The wheels of cheese that I had pilfered during an attack, the apples I had pilfered, the sack; almost all of that had gone to Gloom-glower. The rusty pliers I had wrestled into my ownership, and one apple, were my only possessions. I hated that. Things had to change.

“Whose idea was it to go fishing for ships?” I said.

“Yours,” Remember-not said.

“And after?”

“Mine?”

“And whose idea was it to shred one of my spare canvases into fishing line?”

Black-thumb gulped. “Mine?”

“And whose idea was it to fasten metal for a fishing hook?”

“...Mine,” Mint-breath squeaked.

“How’d you do it?” I said.

“One of the sapling bound barrels was falling apart. The hoop was rusting through. I broke it and bent it.”

“And did anyone say this was a good idea?”

“I thought it was a good idea,” Bags-neck said.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

I asked those goblins to line up by the raised bed of giant honeysuckle. The onions there were half as tall as them. I gave Remember-not the cloak, Black-thumb the leather collar, Mint-breath the barrel hoop, and Bags-neck the basket. Their eyes went big and they stared agape at the items in their hands. The other goblins whispered with excitement.

“Promotions?” Remember-not stammered.

“Promotions,” I said. “I’m proud of all of you.”

“What about the tankard?” Jiggle-cheek said. “I helped heave-ho.”

Suddenly everyone had helped heave-ho. And it was true. I was there. I saw it.

“I can’t share this tankard with everyone,” I said. “This is what I’ll do. I’ll keep it aside for the next promotion.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to keep it for yourself?’ Remember-not said.

“Sure as sure can surely sure for certain!”

I sat back and watched my snots congregate around the garlic. They sat upon the cloves and passed the treasures around for all to examine. I clasped my hands and performed a pirouette. I couldn’t believe it. I had never seen so many happy goblins in one place! And there were garlic everywhere!

Was this it? Was this home?

Just then, a new notification came up.

[Congratulations! Your first complete crew has accepted you as their Admiral!]

[New stat earned: Chance of Mutiny.]

Chance of Mutiny:

0%

[Your Admiral quest path has leveled up to level 684.]

[66 Levels until ketch evolution.]

Another evolution was coming up!

Bigger-more room for more flowers and garlic and onion and snots! My heart felt like it could be the size of Hawkin’s or Abigail’s. Maybe it was evolving too! I puffed my chest nice and big, just in case it needed more room. I held it like that as I watched my snots return the items to their rightful owners. I couldn’t disturb such mirth.

Then, Remember-not said, “What about the sloop pieces?”

“Let’s take a look,” I said.

The sun washed over the ketch. The trumpet flowers opened with the sound of flapping canvas. Insects came alive. Birds began chirping. Dragonflies hovered over still waters. One or two goblins leapt to attempt catching grasshoppers. The onions glistened.

In dappled morning sunlight, I inspected the pieces that most certainly came from a goblin freebooter sloop.

“The hook caught the piece right there,” Remember-not said, replacing the metal fishing hook where it had caught the pieces.

“There has to be more where this came from,” I said. “Oh, I wish Thrush were here!”

“I don’t think a small hook like that is going to catch a big ship,” Bald-knees said.

“The fishing line wouldn’t hold,” Remember-not said.

“It would have to be as thick as the anchor’s rope,” Black-thumb said.

“Thick as the anchor’s rope,” I muttered.

I clomped on over to the capstan. Goblin feet slapped the deck after me.

The rope was thick as a thigh. It was already tied to the sea anchor. If pieces of a sunken ship could be fished with a small hook, could a whole sunken ship be fished with a large hook?

“Churn the capstan!” I called.

“Aye aye Admiral!”

30 goblins churned the capstan; some the wrong way.

“Raise the sea anchor!”

“Aye Aye Admiral!”

30 goblins churned the capstan; all the right way.

I stood tip-toe at the taffrail and watched the sea anchor rise.

“Aye aye Admiral!”

We hauled it aboard.

“Aye aye Admiral!”

We disassembled the fabric of the sea anchor.

“Aye aye Admiral.”

“We’re going to build a giant hook,” I said.

“Aye aye Admiral!”

“Rule number 1.”

“Here come the rules,” Remember-not said. She held up a single finger, counted it to be sure, then held it up higher.

All perked their ears.

“As Slime-tooth once said-”

“-Thank god Slime-tooth,” Mint-breath screamed.

“-there are two rules to building,” I continued. “Rule number 1: Build it as fast as you can! Rule number 2”

Remember-not counted 2 of 3 fingers, put the third one down, and showed those 2 fingers.

“Keep adding things until it works! Go!”

Every goblin snarled like feral cats. They dashed to-and-throw and grabbed every loose item they could. In a matter of moments, goblins were stacking planks on the sea anchor, weaving trumpet vines that were as thick as wrists, and weaving canvas-thick blades of onion sprouts around the new fishing hook-anchor. I leapt in and used my Boat Builder skill on the wood planks to secure them together.

In just a few minutes, we had a wooden fishing hook the size of my old shed. Each and every goblin eagerly waited for the next command with bated breath.

“Let’s sail out into Lavenfauvish waters,” I said, “and see what sunken ships we can fish!”